What a rotten way to treat what are historically two of the shows brightest stars.

I wonder if Stephen and Mary Beth were aware it was there last day when they were filming these scenes?

I doubt even the writers knew. I think they just planned to send them for another long offscreen hiatus till there are some plans for them or atleast given some kind of exit, but Tomlin decided to let them go immediatelly, so they cannot enter another contract cycle. I would guess he has tried to convince Corday to let them go all the time from fall, but he wasn´t very happy to fire another supercouple so soon after Jarlena.

I agree. I mean, even Nelson said he had heard they were out before Thaoo yet the news about Thaoo broke first.

I think Corday wanted to try and keep them on in some form. I think despite his throwing them under the bus in 2007, he wanted to keep them on, even if it was recurring.

I also doubt the writers wanted to get rid of them either, especially with how we started finally getting some stuff with Steve, Kayla, and Stephanie in regards to Philip. I'm convinced Tomlin is the brain in all this and he has Corday's ear. I think he is a present-day Langan. Langan was the only one to get Corday to stay out of the way and to hear him out. I think Tomlin is doing that now.

I do think MBE will be open to appearances. I think the situation is different now then it was before. She has her pie business and family and I also don't see her or SN getting much work. SN likes theatre so he may find work there but MBE isn't really into that. Considering how much in the last two months they've used Kayla in comparison to Steve, I can see them using MBE here and there. SN seems to have been in the dog house for a long time and I don't think he will appear at all.

I also agree with Keith in that they had an opportunity to start fresh with Steve and Kayla in 2006. If I were them, I would not have brought them back the minute they fired JER because it was going to be a summer of transition and when you have that kind of thing going on, it's best to not start a big story like their return during that time. They should've let Hogan handle all of it. However, despite the summer of transition, they still could've salvaged the story by not giving in and having Steve remember so quickly. They needed to do with them what they did with Bo and Hope and John and Marlena in the 90's. They made them popular with new audiences by essentially having them fall in love all over again in front of their very eyes by having them deal with obstacles and so on and so forth. The biggest thing that hurt them was Corday's experiment with Bo, Hope, John, and Marlena in 2007. When he isolated Steve and Kayla during those 6 months, he basically destroyed any chance of them going over with current fans. I also think it would've helped to have had Jack around because current fans knew him and it provided yet another anchor to the Steve and Kayla stuff.

Their return was botched from the start and any attempt to salvage it failed. It's sad because they are one of the best supercouples of all time. The level of impact they had in the 80's was on par with the level of impact J&M had in the 90's and yet they just couldn't re-discover the magic this time. I don't think it was the actors either. The writing just was never there. They did alright by Steve but they never seemed to put Kayla in her element consistently nor did they write stuff that put Steve and Kayla as a couple in their element. The closest they came was last winter when Ava was introduced and then that flopped.